“The farther back you look, the farther forward you can see.” This was reputedly said by Sir Winston Churchill and quoted by Queen Elizabeth II. Whatever its authenticity, it certainly has an element of truth that is relevant for us in tracing the roots of how we have got into the almighty mess that the nation is in today.

One of the advantages of reaching a great old age and still having good intellectual ability is that you can look back and trace some of the great turning points in recent history. I have been working in public life for more than 70 years and I can pinpoint some outstanding moments – such as the beginning of the pop era in 1955 when riotous teenagers tore up the seats in a cinema at the Elephant and Castle during the film ‘Rock Around the Clock’ with Bill Haley and the Comets.

A half-century of social change

As a sociologist I saw the significance of changes taking place in society. It was a time of reconstruction following World War II and full employment in the economy – with young people for the first time in history becoming a new consumer group with high earning power and low social responsibilities, which triggered social change from age to youth. This paved the way for major changes in all our social institutions, particularly in education and the family.

The opportunity is already there for the faithful remnant of Bible-believing Christians to respond.

The 1960s saw the age of culture change, ‘The Flower People’, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), the Beatles, and the pop concert culture. The 1970s was the decade of industrial unrest, strikes, Greenham Common, inner-city riots, the pill and family breakdown, with babies born out of wedlock exceeding 5% for the first time since records began in Britain. The 1980s saw the rise of Thatcherism and the battle with the trades unions, the video nasties, pornography, and drugs. It also saw the rise of the charismatic movement in churches and major changes in worship, from organ and choirs to guitar-led music groups.

The 1990s saw the rise of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, the rapid decline in marriage, the rise in divorce, in cohabitation and family breakdown. All of this continued into the new century, with all the dysfunctional forces of social, economic, moral and cultural decay accelerating as the years progressed. 2008 saw the collapse of the world economy, the ‘twenty-teens’ witnessing political chaos, a nation divided between Leavers and Remainers, the rise of the brief Boris era and the outbreak of the Covid 19 plague. All this led into the mess we are in today with the death of a godly Queen replaced by a King of all faiths, a Muslim Mayor of London and a Hindu Prime Minister – such spiritual miscellany adding to the social and moral mishmash in the nation.

The Blairite era

In the four decades of rapid and radical social change, from the 1960s to the beginning of the 21st-century, if there was one point in that momentous period that was pivotal for changing society, for good or ill, I believe it was 1997. That was the year that Tony Blair stepped into the political limelight as Prime Minister with a massive majority, overthrowing eighteen years of Tory rule, and ending the corrupt Government of John Major, who had been having a secret affair with Edwina Currie and who had hypocritically advocated ‘Back to Basics’ based upon biblical morality.

In the four decades of rapid and radical social change, from the 1960s to the beginning of the 21st-century, if there was one point in that momentous period that was pivotal for changing society, for good or ill, I believe it was 1997.

I was the Convener of the Lords and Commons Family and Child Protection Group, which gave me access to senior politicians as well as backbenchers. I was also the Group’s Research Director and in the ten years 1996 to 2006 I was responsible for a number of significant reports to Members of both Houses of Parliament on issues relating to the health and welfare of the family.

Enter Jack StrawJack Straw

Tony Blair appointed Jack Straw as Home Secretary in 1997 and I had a good working relationship with him. He had recently had a spiritual experience, so I was able to talk about the gospel with him, but as a sociologist I was able to explain the significance of the family in the structure of society. He understood this and I sat beside him in the Moses Room in the House of Lords in July 1998, when he spoke with passion about the family being “the building block of society” and about the importance of marriage. He promised a White Paper preparing the way for legislation to strengthen the marriage-based family.

Sadly, Straw was never able to fulfil this because of fierce opposition within his own governing party. Opposition came largely from a group of 100 women backbenchers known as the Blair Babes. These were an unprecedented electoral phenomenon – a quirk of our British democracy. They were the unintended consequence of Tony Blair’s landslide electoral success! Some of these ladies were left-wing activists who were the only ones bothering to attend local Labour Party meetings in Conservative strongholds. The most vocal local activist was put up as the candidate in places where no one expected them to be elected. The Labour landslide of 1997 swept them into power and some of these ladies had a bad experience of marriage and fiercely opposed Jack Straw’s proposals to give tax concessions and other advantages to married couples.

Nadir of family life in Britain

The final blow, however, was not delivered by renegade politicians, but by the Church. Jill Knight MP, who had been the chair of the Lords and Commons group since 1979, did not stand in the 1997 election and was elevated to the Lords. In order to give support to Jack Straw’s proposals she introduced an amendment to an Educational Bill that was being debated in the House of Lords.

Jack Straw had published the Green Paper, ‘Supporting Families’ in which he correctly stated that marriage was “the most reliable framework for raising children”. Jill Knight attempted to include that statement in the Education Bill dealing with what pupils should be taught about sex and childrearing. In what was the biggest turnout of the session, no fewer than 234 peers took part in the debate, mainly from benches supporting the Government, who voted against the amendment.

The evidence that the family of lifelong monogamy was “the most reliable framework for raising children” was not the message that the Government wanted to get across.

The evidence that the family of lifelong monogamy was “the most reliable framework for raising children” was not the message that the Government wanted to get across. By the opening of the new millennium, that empirical fact had become too diverse, through the feminist drives of the Blair Babes, to be brought to the attention of children in school!

On 18 July 2000, the vote was taken on whether or not children should be taught the value of lifelong faithful marriage. In a defining moment in the history of the Church of England, nine bishops voted against the amendment in a tight vote in which if they had voted the other way the amendment would been carried. That date goes down in history as the day the Church of England voted against Holy Matrimony and destroyed the chances of millions of children being taught the value of marriage.

That day, 18 July 2000, was the nadir of family life in Britain. The Lords and Commons Family and Child Protection Group published a series of reports between 1996 and 2002 clearly setting out the huge range of research, all showing that the marriage-based family was the only safe environment for raising children and that the reconstructed family types that were emerging left children vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse, emotional disturbance, and educational disadvantage on a massive scale.

Effects of family breakdown

The long-term effects of family breakdown, from divorce and short-term cohabitation was demonstrated thousands of times from a vast number of research studies which were published and made available to Members of Parliament. The effects upon the lives of children were summarised in the report ‘Family Matters’ presented to every Member of the House of Commons and the House of Lords in July 1998. The summary stated: –

Children who have suffered a broken home are more likely to –

• become parents at an early age
• divorce if they marry
• suffer a breakup if they cohabit
• have children out of wedlock
• be involved in domestic violence
• have low levels of education
• have no qualifications
• have low status employment
• have low wages
• be unemployed
• be in social housing
• be dependent on welfare
• be homeless
• be involved in crime

In the reports, we clearly set out the scenario showing what could happen in society if our recommendations were accepted and the long-term faithful married family were encouraged and strengthened. We also set out the scenario showing what would happen if the current social trends continued unchanged.

Present day scenario

We felt they would lead to exactly the type of mess that we have today, with a vast number of children and young people under 21 suffering from various forms of mental and emotional disorder, the unbearable strain upon the Health Service, upon teachers in our schools, upon the Welfare Services and the impossible demands being made for wage increases when the public purse is virtually empty due to the vast amount of borrowing in the past three years.

Most of the pernicious social problems we are facing today have their roots in family breakdown.

Most of the pernicious social problems we are facing today have their roots in family breakdown. It was all predicted in 1998. Is there anything that can be done?

But there is hope

Prophetically, back in the 1990s, we said that if no changes were made and the social disaster we predicted actually came to pass, we believed that there would come a point of despair in the nation which would bring a new openness to truth and to the gospel as being our only means of salvation.

That is the hope that we have today! Already we can sense the despair in such things as Prince Harry’s book (a victim of family breakdown!) and millions of young people searching for answers. The opportunity is already there for the faithful remnant of Bible-believing Christians to respond. We cannot all be ‘evangelists’, but we can all be ‘witnesses’ – just telling others what Jesus has done in our lives, and what he can do in their lives too.